


The Friendship Vigilante

by Oshusta



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Awkwardness, Late Night Conversations, Lonely Steve Rogers, M/M, Post-Avengers (2012), Pre-Friendship, Pre-Slash, Sarcasm, Tony Stark Is Not Helping, until he is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 05:35:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29238411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oshusta/pseuds/Oshusta
Summary: Steve just didn’t understand how Tony could live like this. The place was a mess. Cluttered with heaps, mounds, piles of…whatever it was – gadgets, gidgets, gismos, garbage whatever the guy called them. Steve had never owned enough to even have clutter. And now he had more wealth than he could even fathom at the tip of his fingertips because of Tony Stark.(OR Tony's the only other person awake at one in the morning in the tower so Steve seeks his company)
Relationships: Steve Rogers & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Kudos: 38





	The Friendship Vigilante

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't a one-shot or anything - it's just a thing! A thing that came from my fingertips when i typed! It's unbetaed also.
> 
> Also, fyi, some dj wannabe is blasting his own remixed tunes from the other dorm. It's really loud. Right now he's playing Counting Stars...i liked the song but i don't think i'll be playing it for myself in a while. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Steve just didn’t understand how Tony could live like this. The place was a mess. Cluttered with heaps, mounds, piles of…whatever it was – gadgets, gidgets, gismos, garbage whatever the guy called them. Steve had never owned enough to even have clutter. And now he had more wealth than he could even fathom at the tip of his fingertips because of Tony Stark.

“Mister Rogers. Aren’t you supposed to be destroying the gym equipment?” the swank in question implored from– thin air it seemed. He was nowhere in sight. Steve crouched down to look underneath the Hot Rod. Tony craned his neck to look at him from where he was lying underneath it. “Oh, hello.”

“Hi, Tony,” Steve said quietly. He cleared his throat, and said a bit louder. “Jarvis told me you were still up.”

“Which is as much invitation as you’ll get to come up here,” Tony grouched, returning to whatever he was doing to the car. Ripping it apart from the belly up. Steve let out a loud sigh at the unwelcoming comment. _Guy really doesn’t take well to making new friends_ , he thought with drooping eyes.

“Shouldn’t you be doing something more…” Steve tried to come up with a polite word for it. “ _Productive_?”

Well, Steve conceded to himself, it was nearly one in the morning.

Tony slipped a tool – it looked like screwdriver – into his mouth. It almost looked like he was about to use it as an excuse not to answer, but he mumbled around it “Just winding down for the night.”

Steve snorted, observing the laboratory from his crouched position. He supposed if it weren’t cluttered, if it were glossy, clean and bare, it’d remind Steve of…another time. A time filled with desperate scientists that would test anything at any expense to get some sort of foothold in a wrought world of darkness. These times didn’t feel any less dark.

“It’s almost one in the morning,” Steve pointed out, glancing back down to where Tony was lying. There was a pinch to his brow as he pulled the drive out of his mouth and started putting it to use. It didn’t look like he was listening.

The music, some abrasive rock that frayed on Steve’s nerve, lowered in noise. That caught Tony’s attention. He turned wide eyes to Steve in question.

“Did you genuinely need me for something? I’m sort of working out of business hours at the moment.” He did a funny little nod with his head. “Not a great time for me, and all that.”

Steve sighed again, more gently this time. Tony really had no idea how to handle people. Steve wasn’t there to gain anything. He just wanted some company from someone who wouldn’t ask any questions. Tony was the best candidate for that – and not just because he was the only other life form in the building that was awake.

“I suppose I just came down here to bug ya,” Steve said with a wan smile that didn’t reach his eyes. Just anything to get a more down to earth reaction from the guy.

“Well, you’d be the first to admit it,” Tony said. Such a smart ass.

Steve looked to the heavens for help. He supposed only Jarvis was looking back at him.

“You know, Stark,” Steve began in a mock conversational tone, stretching his legs out and leaning back on his hands. “Aside from re-opening this tower for us to live in, and literally paying for everything we could want, you aren’t very hospitable.”

Tony chortled. “I didn’t do any of this to make friends.”

Of course, he didn’t. He did it because he cared about the security of the world, and what he’d done was a vital step towards ensuring it. Tony only really played nice with the others that made up the Avengers, whilst everyone else was starting to develop a budding comradery. It was good to know the people you went to battle with had your back in every aspect of life. One less thing to worry about when you risked your neck. But Tony…Steve knew now that he wasn’t just out there for himself, but by God were Steve’s instincts telling him something different.

“Something’s making me think you don’t know how to make friends,” Steve grumbled.

Tony paused. That caught his attention. Steve must have struck a nerve. He was good at picking that out. He knew whenever he used to, before he was big. It meant getting beaten in a back alley. After he got big he never talked smack. So, this, him prodding at Tony, it was bringing him back to the times he would get scraped on the concrete.

Tony ended up pulling himself out from under the Hot Rod and placing his tools on the bench closest. He remained on his pulley, but he sat up, facing Steve.

“My sort of lifestyle doesn’t exactly…” Tony paused, searching the air, “Suit the bill for… ‘friends’.”

He used his fingers to punctuate the word. It sounded like a curse rolling off his tongue.

Steve narrowed his eyes. “Sounds pretty lonely.”

Tony’s dark eyes rested heavily on Steve. Again, with that look. Always like he was ten steps ahead, always knowing something more than him. He said, quietly, “I’ve got people, Rogers. Everyone has someone.”

Steve swallowed and looked away, his eyes suddenly burning.

Steve did have someone. Seventy years ago. And he’d lost him. And now…now Steve had really lost him. And now there was no someone. No people. Unless Tony meant…he couldn’t have possibly meant the Avengers. Like he’d said, they weren’t friends. Did he mean…

Steve swallowed again so his voice wouldn’t crack. “You got a family?”

“Well…” Tony cocked his head. “Not exactly by the book.”

Steve’s face contorted into a frown.

Jarvis interjected from his resting space in the ceiling. “What Mister Stark is trying to say is, he has no blood relatives, but those that are close to him he considers his family.”

The corner of Tony’s lips turned downwards. “Thank you, Jarvis, for divulging that so eloquently.”

Steve blinked. Well, that didn’t matter. Family was family.

“Would you…tell me about them?” Steve asked, his heart beating in his ears.

“Well, I-“ Tony cut himself off and looked away quickly, avoiding eye contact. “I guess I…could.”

It’d hurt like all hell hearing it, but Steve was really looking forward to it. Whatever this man, the one who could only play nice with others instead of being their friend, who liked working alone, who was narcissistic and rude at the best of times had to say about the people he thought of as family, Steve would sit down to hear. To put off nightmares and another form of shear, terrifying loneliness.

“I’ve got hot coco on my floor,” Tony said, his gaze skittering back up to Steve’s face.

Steve let out a soft breath. “Bet it’ll taste better than it did in 1945.”

Tony’s lips quirked. “Let’s test that, shall we?”

**Author's Note:**

> yeah, sorry, this would've been cute as a whole ass friends to lovers fic, but nothing more is coming out of my fingies. Maybe i can write a series out of this. Nye.
> 
> Leave a comment! I love responding to your constructive feedback and observations! Have a wonderful life and I hope you read some good cush.


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